It does raise wider questions about the power Apple and Google have over censorship however (by censorship I mean of lawful adult content, not unlawful material as featured in the news articles). Now we're heading towards those grey areas of artistic expression. Where does art end and porn begin? And do we want Apple and Google for the most part defining this (because they in turn, will create the rules Tumblr must follow)?

It does raise wider questions about the power Apple and Google have over censorship however (by censorship I mean of lawful adult content, not unlawful material as featured in the news articles). Now we're heading towards those grey areas of artistic expression. Where does art end and porn begin? And do we want Apple and Google for the most part defining this (because they in turn, will create the rules Tumblr must follow)?

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The issue was never the normal adult content it was about finding child porn on Tumblr that was not noticed by the filters. So Apple blocked Tumblr from the app market until it was solved. Tumblr now says we reject all porn from our servers.

But instead of taking care of the actual problem, there is now a rampant issue of artists getting their completely safe-for-work art flagged as explicit and getting banned from search. It hurts their reach and subsequently their income, which is what everyone is upset about.
This isn't even including (lawful) NSFW artists which built their following on the platform. It's no longer about "muh pornz!" and is becoming about killing small businesses.

Though I see from all sides the reasoning, I think their methods are downright stupid.

They have taken care of the issue by saying no more porn allowed. If people miss it they will find another platform to share. I hope they never find child porn on there else good bet they will close it down to. The legal impact of having child porn is huge.

It does raise wider questions about the power Apple and Google have over censorship however (by censorship I mean of lawful adult content, not unlawful material as featured in the news articles). Now we're heading towards those grey areas of artistic expression. Where does art end and porn begin? And do we want Apple and Google for the most part defining this (because they in turn, will create the rules Tumblr must follow)?

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Yeah. kinda sounds puritanical and oppressive.

And i mean the legal stuff,not the illegal stuff. I heard Europe doesn't shock easily over such stuff. But the Americans seem to shock over stuff like nudity.

Seems there is even a petition to make them rescind their policy change.

Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo, which is part of a media conglomerate Oath, which is owned by Verizon.

Tumblr is finally growing up. To be honest, whether or not you enjoy or participate in adult content, it's surprising that adult content was allowed to exist for such a long time as a major social media network. Facebook YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram have long disallowed adult content on their platforms. It's difficult to justify to advertisers thay they should spend their ad dollars with you when their family-friendly ad is literally displayed in between lifted legs.

More broadly though, the issue isn't and shouldnt be over porn itself. The root of the issue was spambots who posted child porn, which got through their programmatic filters so the app was removed from the Apple store (and rightfully so). I think that's a huge challenge for sites at the scale of Tumblr: how do you effectively moderate your userbase at scale? How do you do so efficiently by using a combination of human and automated reviews?

I think this also speaks to large issues surrounding all of the social media sites about malevolent actors who are intentionally tageting civic and societal institutions to spread everything from disinformation to childporn.

Most experienced admins know first-hand what a spam attack looks like. It's horrible, it takes over your board, and you need to shut everything down while you clean up. Then imagine the spambots are posting child porn to your platform - how horrifying would that be?

... which will basically translate to "The End of Tumblr"
I mean ... NO porn...? "Then, what's the f***ing point???" is what I think a lot of users (including myself) will be asking as they uninstall the Tumblr app.
Oh well... It was good while it lasted

... which will basically translate to "The End of Tumblr"
I mean ... NO porn...? "Then, what's the f***ing point???" is what I think a lot of users (including myself) will be asking as they uninstall the Tumblr app.
Oh well... It was good while it lasted

As far as I know they fall under the same rules which means even uploaded works of art that show certain body parts are will put you in breach of their new terms.

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Hopefully that petition on changedotorg will stop it and tell them to put the new rules where the sun don't shine,I signed the petition earlier today and now the petiton is at 296,873 and growing. You don't simply ignore numbers like that.

Hopefully that petition on changedotorg will stop it and tell them to put the new rules where the sun don't shine,I signed the petition earlier today and now the petiton is at 296,873 and growing. You don't simply ignore numbers like that.